Oracle and ? - Eight Drabbles
by Chastity
Summary: Eight answers to an Oracle romance challenge. (previously six - two more added)
1. Lady in Red

Lady in Red

These eight stories are the result of a challenge posted to the BLUDHAVEN@yahoogroups.com mailing list by Darklady.The challenge rules were that the fic must be approximately 150 - 200 words in length, must be a romance fic, and must pair Barbara Gordon with a male other than Dick Grayson.I had fun. 

Oh yes – all the story titles are either song titles or song lyrics.Bonus points if anyone can name all the songs. 

Characters are DC's.Stories are mine.

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Lady in Red – challenge reply 1

by Chastity

166 words

Continuity: Probably not realistic.Some point in time where the original Titans were together and the original Batgirl still around, and before Roy met Cheshire.Additional note:I know NOTHING about Roy Harper, so I apologize in advance. ;)

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Red hair.Man, that's a turn-on for me.

I mean, where I grew up, everyone had dark hair, right?Sometimes one of the girls would bleach her hair, but it was always so dark that it'd turn this straw-y dirty yellow.I was the only one on the entire reserve who had red hair.

Even once I hooked up with Ollie, there wasn't much difference.He's blond.Dinah's brunette, but she and Ollie both have a thing for the blonde wig - I just know it.The Titans have brown or black hair, except when Wally dyes his.Lots of people have dyed hair, but there aren't many with real red hair.

But Batgirl!She has flaming red hair, and emerald green eyes, and pale soft milky skin.It's all natural.I can tell.

And when she flies down from the rooftops, her hair sailing behind her, and flashes that huge bubbly grin…

It's a scene outta my dreams, I tell ya… that red, red hair.


	2. I Could Touch the Sky

I Could Touch the Sky – challenge reply 2

by Chastity

197 words

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Dick was the first one to introduce us, a long, long time ago.Back then, neither of us knew the person behind the superhero.Then things changed, lives changed, **we** changed.He got stronger, but I… I got weaker.I lost the one thing that mattered most to me – the ability to fly.

I fell in love with him because he gave it back, as best as anyone could.

He showed up one day with no warning; just rang my bell, told me that he had a surprise, and whisked me away on the T-Jet to somewhere with a beach.Then he introduced me to his element.

He was patient as I got used once more to the tides, but as soon as I was comfortable, a huge grin split his face and he dunked me underwater.And he made me fly.

Magically he allowed me to experience his world, and we soared through the currents together.We flirted with sharks and chased blowfish.

All too soon it was time to go home, to leave the ocean for the land.

But for one day, Garth gave me back my wings, and I'll always love him for that.


	3. Tradition

Tradition

Tradition – challenge reply 3

by Chastity

231 words

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I guess it's tradition, something that every Robin goes through.

You only have to look into Dick's eyes – or listen to Alfred's stories – to know what he felt.

Jason… well, I don't know a lot about him.Sometimes, though, there's a difference in his old case logs, a softness about her eyes when she remembers him, and it makes me think.

I mean, like I said, I don't think any Robin could avoid it.Get a teenage boy working together with a woman as beautiful and powerful as she is and there's no denying it – especially when she's so open and real, and the only other person who shares **everything** plays at humanity like an actor on stage.

Dick and Jason, they knew her when she could still ride the winds.I only know the part of her that's confined to the earth.It gives her a certain helplessness, one that's hidden within the electronic construct she's placed around herself, but that slips out sometimes when one of us swings through her window.Her painful yearning just makes me care for her more.

I'm not going to tell anyone.Usually I'd talk to Dick, but if I said anything he'd roast my balls on a spit… no, he'd make Alfred do it, because the only thing Dick can cook is cornflake pizza. 

But I think I'm in love with Barbara Gordon.


	4. Somewhere Inside Hiding

Note:This one and the next can be considered either stand-alone or stand-together.

Somewhere Inside Hiding – challenge reply 4

by Chastity

181 words

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I think I've always loved him.When I was younger, I thought I wanted to emulate him because I admired him so.I thought I fought so hard to gain that nod or glance or touch of approval because I wanted to be part of the team.I thought that the thrill that raced through me when he acknowledged me was joy that training so fiercely had paid off.

After all, **no one** could get close to him.He lived with his mission, and that left no room for anything else.I could see that after working with him for only a few nights.I guess that's why I buried my love of him so deep.

He's opened up a little since those nights so long ago.Sometimes his stone mask cracks and a feeling slips out.Maybe that's why I'm starting to think about him again.

We've both been taken down time and again by life, and we both reacted by shutting ourselves away.But when his façade finally crumbles, he's going to need someone there.

Could it be me?


	5. In Shadow I Hide

In Shadow I Hide – challenge reply 5

by Chastity

181 words

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I can never get closer to most people than the rooftops over their heads.Wrapped with shadows like a second skin, I watch those at street level as they go about their lives.I can never be part of their days in the light.

Sometimes, someone will join me on the rooftops and, for a brief moment, I won't be alone.But only once has someone brought with her to the rooftops the light from below, trailing her in flight as if she were a shooting star to be wished on.For all too brief a time she shone light on our mission.

Then she was taken away, and it was my fault.I could do nothing.I was helpless.The light that supported me was extinguished, ripped from the rooftops and confined to the earth.

Now I watch her from afar again.

She can no longer join me on the rooftops, except occasionally in spirit.She cannot soar beside me, her light illuminating the sky, because of my negligence.

Alone in the darkness, shadowed by cape and cowl, I watch.


	6. Keep 'Em in Stitches, Doubled in Half

Keep 'Em in Stitches, Doubled in Half

Keep 'Em in Stitches, Doubled in Half – challenge reply 6

by Chastity

157 words

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I own her, you know.

I've marked her.She's mine.

Hee.Heh heh.HeeheehaHAHAHAHAHAHEHEHEhehehehe!Hyeehahaahaha.

Hoo ha.That's funny.

You see, she's mine.And she's part of the Bat-family.

That makes me a part of the Battiness, too!

You know what they say about in-laws, don't you?

Hee!If only Batsy knew why he hated me so much… heheheeheeHAHAHAha.Hrm.

I made her my own without knowing it.

None of that silly love-at-first sight stuff for me and my funny girl, oh no!This is a love that grew slowly out of the damp phosphorescent mould carpeting the solitary confinement cell at Arkham.

It bubbled and simmered as I sat alone, mooning over the exquisite expressions of agony that contorted her gorgeous face as her lifeblood pooled beneath her once-perfect body.

I've marked her.

She's as scarred as I am.

She's just right for me now.

And I made her that way.

Isn't that funny?

Hee hee.


	7. Wings to Fly

This one has to be for Dannell, since it's her fault I kept going. 

Wings to Fly

by Chastity

222 words

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The wheelchair floated into the air and flowed out of its natural shape.Still hanging off the floor, it began undergoing various transformations.From the twisted metal of her cage came the most beautiful sights.

The skyline of Gotham at night, before NML.

Their beach in Hawaii, metal waves frozen as they lapped against metal sand.

A single rose, which he plucked from the air and handed to her with a flourish.

His own image flying through the air, cape flapping about his metallic costume.

Her image joining him.

The two metal representatives joining hands and sailing through the apartment to stop expectantly at the window.

Laughing gleefully, she took the hint and placed her hand trustingly in his.He lifted her gently from her berth on the couch and carried her to the window, opening the metal latch with a quirk of his mind.

He stepped out, summoning his power to stabilize them, and opened his arms.She hovered in front of him, supported in mid-air by the electromagnetic forces he controlled.She tried to keep her face under control, but could not disguise in her eyes the joy she felt every time he gave her back the skies.

She floated closer to him, running her fingers through his thick white hair, and whispered in his ear, "I love you, Erik."

*

Disclaimer Addendum:Magneto is Marvel's.


	8. Two Angels Who've Been Rescued From the ...

Playing fast and loose with continuity here due to my own ignorance.Forgive, forgive!I think this one is also Dannell's fault, if indirectly.

Two Angels Who've Been Rescued From the Fall

by Chastity

219 words

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Children of the Bat, both of us, but not like Dick is.We're sort of… accidental.

I forced my way in.Wouldn't take no for an answer.I was young, Gotham was my world, and I needed to do anything I could to protect it.Bruce tried to keep me out for a while, but I think he finally decided that if I was determined to risk my life, I'd better be trained to do it right.

Bruce invited Jean-Paul in, true, but I don't think he ever thought further than his own recovery.Jean was supposed to be a temporary measure, a substitute who would be expected to fade back into anonymity when the "real thing" was ready to re-emerge.But then he went over the edge.

It was Batman who allowed Azrael the ability to recreate himself, just as it was the strength of the Batman who forged Oracle out of a woman who almost gave up on herself.

Now we've formed a support group of two, one that reaffirms his humanity and my femininity.So much is resolved through pillow talk, or simply through the pressure of flesh on flesh as we hold each other.

Maybe we were both pulled from the fire with the help of the Bat, but we will forge our lives together.

***

If you missed it, here are the pairings in order:

Lady in Red – Roy Harper (Arsenal)/Babs

I Could Touch the Sky – Garth (Tempest)/Babs

Tradition – Tim Drake (Robin III)/Babs

Somewhere Inside Hiding – Bruce Wayne (Batman)/Babs – Babs' point of view

In Shadow I Hide – Bruce Wayne (Batman)/Babs – Bruce's point of view

Keep 'Em in Stitches, Doubled in Half – The Joker/Babs

Wings to Fly – Erik Magnus Lehnsherr (Magneto)/Babs

Two Angels Who've Been Rescued From the Fall – Jean-Paul Valley (Azrael)/Babs


End file.
